Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:14

July 23, 2008

Same house nine years later

When we purchased our home, we were in our early thirties and had two children. Nine years later, we are in our early forties and have six children. Times have changed. ;)

There have been various reorganizations over the years. When we first moved in, the two kids didn't even have a bedroom; they slept with us! We had three bedrooms to furnish as we saw fit. One became a playroom, one an office and another a school room. The playroom became the big girls' room about four years ago. Then, the office became my oldest daughter's bedroom. Flash forward to today--the last remaining room without a bed is the learning room and it has got to go. Sniff. Sniff. Time to dismantle shelves and clear it out. It must become a bedroom for our two middle children. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong!

What in the world am I supposed to do with an eMac, an iMac, a printer, an IKEA Expedit shelf, a guinea pig, oodles and oodles of books, manipulatives, puzzles, school supplies, arts and craft supplies and learning toys? Can you hear my voice rising in hysteria??

Well, the solution is clear but it's going to be a heckuva lot of work. :(

I am clearing out closets (we do have two extra smallish closets to store some of these items) and miracles of miracles, I actually cleaned out the built-in unit in our family room (three cabinets, three shelves and six drawers that were full of junk rarely used items). I am going to attempt to convert this to storage for our everyday learning materials. A LOT of books will be boxed and moved into the garage if they will not be used this coming school year. I plan on labeling everything very well so I can access them easily in the disaster that is my garage! :S

So, all this said, can you guess why the blog has been quiet? :)

Prayers for perseverance for me would be appreciated. God has given me a great gift recently. He made me feel quite content to stay in this house FOREVER--all 1,978 square feet of it. It will be fine. I can do this and with God's help, my house will continue to be a haven and a faith-filled refuge for our family and oh yes, a place to get a bit of learning done as well!

3 Comments

WHOA!!! Having seen your home and getting this visual in my head.....I am in amazment that you are accomplishing this!!! That is a ton of work! Cleaning out your organized learning room is a big job....but shelves and closets too!!! You inspire me!!

Jennifer - my house is probably about the same size as yours (maybe a little smaller) and I do not have a garage but a carport (but do have good basement storage)- and I have been doing the same thing. Do not get overwhelmed - set yourself little goals. Each time we have a new little one - I have to do a new tidy up and reorganize!!